by Georges Roux
21. H. WAETZOLDT, Untersuchungen zur neusumerischen Textilindustrie, Roma, 1972.
22. On this controversial subject, see: M. A. POWELL, ‘Sumerian merchants and the problem of profits’, Iraq, XXXIX (1977), pp. 23 – 9; D. C. SNELL, ‘The activities of some merchants of Umma, ibid., pp. 45 – 50; H. LIMET, ‘Les schémas du commerce néosumér-ien’, ibid., pp. 51 – 8.
23. I. J. GELB, ‘Prisoners of war in early Mesopotamia’, JNES, XXII (1973), pp. 70 – 98.
24. I. J. GELB, ‘The ancient Mesopotamian ration system’, JNES, XXIV (1965), pp. 230 – 41.
25. M. CIVIL, ‘Shu-Sin's historical inscriptions: collection B’, JCS, XXI (1967), pp. 24 – 38; W. W. HALLO, in RAH, XXXVI (1978), p. 79.
26. A. UNGNAD, article ‘Datenlisten’ in RLA, II, p. 144; IRSA, p. 52. This in fact was a wall, 275 kilometres long, which linked the Euphrates to the Tigris somewhere north of modern Baghdad.
27. On the Amorites generally, see: K. M. KENYON; Amorites and Canaanites, London, 1963; G. BUCCELLATI, The Amorites of the Ur III period, Napoli, 1963; A. HALDAR, Who were the Amorites?, Leiden, 1971; M. LIVERANI, ‘The Amorites’ in D. J. WISEMAN (ed.), Peoples of Old Testament Times, Oxford, 1972, pp. 101 – 33.
28. E. CHIERA, Sumerian Epics and Myths, Chicago 1934, Nos 58 and 112.
29. E. CHIERA, Sumerian Texts of Varied Contents, Chicago, 1934, No. 3.
30. On the reign of Ibbi-Sin and the fall of Ur, see: T. JACOBSEN, ‘The reign of Ibbi-Suen’, JCS, VII (1953), pp. 36 – 44; E. SOLLBERGER, article ‘Ibbi-Sin’ in RLA, V, pp. 1 – 8; J. VAN DIJKE, ‘Ishbi-Erra, Kindattu, l'homme d'Elam et la chute de la ville d'Ur’, JCS, XXX (1978), pp. 189 – 207.
31. S. N. KRAMER, ‘Lamentation over the destruction of Ur’ ANET, pp. 455 – 63. There is also a lamentation over the destruction of Sumer and Ur (ibid., pp. 611–19) and fragmentary lamentations over the destruction of Nippur, Uruk and Eridu; cf. S. N. KRAMER, ‘The weeping goddess: Sumerian prototype of the Mater Dolorosa’, Biblical Archaeologist, 1983, pp. 69 – 80.
Chapter 11
1. On the socio-economic conditions of Mesopotamia in that period, see: A. L. OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia, Chicago, 1964, pp. 74 – 125, and C. J. GADD in CAH, II, 1, pp. 190 – 208. Numerous articles have been published on the subject.
2. W. F. LEEMANS, The Old Babylonian Merchant, Leiden, 1950; Foreign Trade in the Old Babylonian Period, Leiden, 1960.
3. F. R. KRAUS, ‘The role of temples from the third dynasty of Ur to the first Babylonian dynasty’, Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, I, 1954, p. 535.
4. Isin is Ishan Bahriyat, 25 kilometres south of Nippur. German excavations started in 1973 are still in progress. First final reports: B. HROUDA, Isin-Ishan Bahriyat, I and II, Münnchen, 1977, 1981. Larsa is Senkereh, 48 kilometres north of Nasriyah and not far from Uruk. French excavations in progress since 1968. Interim reports by J. C. MARGUERON, then J. L. HUOT in Sumer, XXVII (1971) ff. and Syria, XLVII (1970) ff. Also see: J. L. HuoT (ed.), Larsa et 'Oueili, Travaux de 1978 – 1981, Paris, 1983.
5. W. P. H. ROMER, Sumerische ‘Königshymnen’ der Isin-Zeit, Leiden, 1965. A list of these hymns has been published by W. W. HALLO in Bi. Or., XXIII (1966), pp. 239 – 47.
6. A. L. OPPENHEIM, ‘The seafaring merchants of Ur’, JAOS, LXXIV (1954), pp. 6 – 17.
7. S. N. KRAMER, ‘The Lipit-Ishtar Lawcode’ in ANET, pp. 159 – 61. E. SZLECHTER, ‘Le code de Lipit-Ishtar’, RA, LI (1957), pp. 57 – 82; 177 – 96, and RA, LII (1958), pp. 74 – 89.
8. On the substitute King, cf.: H. FRANKFORT, Kingship and the Gods, Chicago, 1955, pp. 262 – 5. J. BOTTERO, ‘Le substitut royal et son sort en Mésopotamie ancienne’, Akkadica, IX (1978), pp. 2 – 24.
9. A. K. GRAYSON, ABC, p. 155.
10. Marad is Wanna es-Sa'dun, 24 kilometres north of Diwaniya. On these small Amorite kingdoms, see: D. O. EDZARD, Die Zweite Zwischenzeit Babyloniens, Wiesbaden, 1957.
11. H. FRANKFORT, SETON LLOYD, TH. JACOBSEN, The Gimilsin Temple and the Palace of the Rulers at Tell Asmar, Chicago, 1940, pp. 116 – 200. Also see D. O. EDZARD, op. cit., pp. 71 – 4; 118 – 21; 162 – 7.
12. E. SZLECHTER, Les Lois d'Eshnunna, Paris, 1954; A. GOETZE, The Laws of Eshnunna, New Haven, 1956; ANET, pp. 161 – 3.
13. TAHA BAQIR, Tell Harmal, Baghdad, 1959. The texts from Tell Harmal have been published in Sumer, VI (1950) to XIV (1958) and in JCS, XIII (1959) to XXVII (1975).
14. Assur (Qal'at Sherqat) was excavated by a German expedition under W. ANDRAE between 1903 and 1914. Final reports were published in the WVDOG collection until the middle fifties. For a condensed account of the results, cf. W. ANDRAE, Das widererstandene Assur (2nd edition revised by B. HROUDA), München, 1977.
15. A. POEBEL, ‘The Assyrian King List from Khorsabad’, JNES, I (1942), pp. 247 – 306; 460 – 95. A similar list has been published by I. J. GELB in JNES, XIII (1954), pp. 209 – 30. On these lists, see: F. R. KRAUS, Könige, die in Zelton wohnten, Amsterdam, 1965, and H. LEWY in CAH, I, 2, pp. 743 – 52.
16. On the beginnings of the Assyrian kingdom, see D. OATES, Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq, London, 1968, pp. 19 – 41.
17. The inscriptions of the early kings of Assyria have been published in ARI, I, pp. 4 – 18 and in RIMA, I, pp. 14 – 46.
18. On the palace, see: J. MARGUERON, ‘L'architecture de la fin du IIIe millénaire à Mari’ in Miscellanea Babylonica, Paris, 1985, pp. 211 – 22. On the history: J. M. DURAND, ‘La situation historique des shakkanakku: nouvelle approche’, MARI, 4, 1985, pp. 147 – 72.
19. D. CHARPIN, J. M. DURAND, ‘“Fils de Sim'al”: les origines tribales des rois de Mari’, RA, LXXX (1986), pp. 141 – 83.
20. G. DOSSIN, ‘L’inscription de fondation de Iahdun-Lim, roi de Mari, Syria, XXXII (1955), pp. 1 – 28.
21. D. CHARPIN, in Miscellanea Babylonica, pp. 60 – 61.
22. Tell Leilan, excavated by a team of Yale University since 1979, has yielded a super temple with spiral columns and a large building containing tablets and cylinder-seals. Latest interim report in AJA, XCXIV (1990), pp. 529 – 81. Also see. H. WEISS, ‘Tell Leilan and Shubat-Enlil’, MARI, 4, pp. 269 – 92.
23. M. T. LARSEN, in RA, XLVIII (1974), p. 16. This opinion is shared by D. CHARPIN and J. M. DURAND.
24. The 20,000 odd tablets (most, but not all letters) which form the royal archives of Mari are published in transliteration and translation as Archives Royales de Mari (ARMT), Paris, 1950 ff. In 1991, this series, not yet completed, had twenty-six volumes. Many other texts or studies are published separately in MARI (= Mari, Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires); Paris, created in 1982 (seven volumes published), and in other periodicals such as RA, Iraq, Syria, etc.
25. ARMT, I, 124. The three quotations that follow are taken from ARMT (volume and number), IV, 70; I, 61 and I, 69 respectively.
26. J. R. KUPPER, Les Nomades en Mésopotamie au temps des Rois de Mari, Paris, 1957.
27. Qatna, modern Mishrifeh, 18 kilometres north-east of Horns, was excavated by the French between 1924 and 1929: R. DU MESNIL DU BUISSON, Le Site Archéologique de Mishrifé-Qatna, Paris, 1935.
28. ARMT, V, 6.
29. ARMT, IV, 88.
30. Inscription of Samsi-Addu in ARI, I, p. 26.
31. BAHIJA KHALIL ISMAIL, ‘Eine Siegesstele des Konigs Dadusa von Esnunna’, in W. MEID and H. TRENKWALDER, Im Bannkreis des Alten Orients, Innsbruck, 1986, pp. 105 – 8.
32. ARMT, I, 93; IV, 5, 14.
33. ARMT, V, 56.
Chapter 12
1. For example the head of Hammurabi (?) at the Louvre Museum and the top of the stele with Hammurabi's ‘Code of Laws’ (A. PARROT, Sumer, 1981, figs. 282 and 280 respectively).
2. Illustrations corresponding to these examples can be found in A. PARROT, op. cit., pp. 257 – 98.
3. W. G. LAMBERT, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960, p. 10.
4. T. JACOBSEN, The Treasures of Darkness, New Haven, 1976, p. 147.
5. W. G. LAMBERT, op. cit. above.
7. The date-formulae of Hammurabi are given in German translation by UNGNAD in RLA, II, pp. 178 – 82. English translation by A. L. OPPENHEIM in ANET, pp. 269 – 71. It has been suggested that in these first campaigns Hammurabi acted as ally, or even as vassal of Shamshi-Adad of Assyria (C. J. GADD, CAH, II, 1, p. 177).
8. D. CHARPIN, J. M. DURAND, ‘La prise du pouvoir par Zimri-Lim’ in MARI, 4, 1985, pp. 318 – 19.
9. On a recently published seal of Zimri-Lim, this king calls himself ‘son of Hadni-Addu’ (MARI, 4, pp. 336 – 8), This does not necessarily mean that his true father was not Iahdun-Lim, as Zimri-Lim might have been adopted by Hadni-Addu (otherwise unknown) when he was in exile.
10. B. LAFONT, ‘Les filles du roi de Mari, in J. M. DURAND (ed.), La Femme dans le Proche-Orient Antique, Paris, 1987, pp. 113 – 25.
11. A. T. CLAY, The Empire of the Amorites, New Haven, 1919, p. 97.
12. L. KING, The Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, London, 1900 – 1902; F. THUREAU-DANGIN, ‘La correspondance de Hammurabi avec Shamash-hasir’, RA XXI (1924), pp. 1 – 58.
13. D. O. EDZARD, The Near East, New York, 1967, pp. 213 – 14; R. HARRIS, Ancient Sippar, Leiden, 1975, pp. 39 – 142; N. YOFFEE, The Economic Role of the Crown in the Old Babylonian Period, Malibu, Calif., 1977, p. 148; R. HARRIS, ‘On the process of secularization under Hammurabi’, JCS, XV (1961), pp. 117 – 20.
14. Code of Hammurabi, Prologue, I, 1 – 30. Marduk, in Sumerian AMAR-UTU, ‘bullock of the Sun-god’ seems to have been a solar deity of minor rank. Although the patron god of Babylon, the capital-city of the first great Babylonian kingdom, he did not figure at the head of the pantheon until the second half of the second millennium B. C. See: H. SCHMÖKEL, ‘Hammurabi und Marduk’, RA, LIII (1959), pp. 183 – 204.
15. The Code of Hammurabi has been translated into several languages and copiously commented. The most recent English translations are in ANET, pp. 163 – 80 (TH. J. MEEK) and in G. R. DRIVER and G. C. MILES, Babylonian Laws, Oxford, 1955 – 6. Vol. I: Legal Commentary; vol. II: Translation and Philological Commentary.
16. G. R. DRIVER and G. C. MILES, Babylonian Laws, pp. 48 ff.; F. R. KRAUS, ‘Ein zentrales Problem des altmesopotamischen Rechtes: was ist der Codex Hammu-rabi?’, Genava, VIII (1960), pp. 283 – 96; J. J. FINKELSTEIN, ‘Ammisaduqa's edict and the Babylonian “Law Codes”’, JCS, XV (1961), pp. 91 – 104; D. J. WISEMAN, ‘The Laws of Hammurabi again’, JSS, VII (1962), pp. 161 – 72.
17. Part of the stele was erased in antiquity, resulting in the loss of five to seven columns of text and approximately thirty-five laws. Fragments of the Code on clay tablets help fill the gap.
18. E. A. SPEISER, ‘Mushkênum’, Orientalia, XXVII (1958), pp. 19 – 28. The mushkênum is already mentioned in the Laws of Eshnunna, §§ 12, 13, 24, 34, 50.
19. The Babylonian marriage was essentially a contract (CH, § 128). Before the ceremony, the future husband presented his father-in-law with a ‘bridal gift’ (terhatum), and the bride's father gave her a dowry (sheriqtum) of which she had perpetual possession.
20. Neither the Laws of Eshnunna nor the Sumerian Laws (Ur-Nammu, Lipit-Ishtar) mention the ilkum which might have been introduced by Hammurabi as a political measure. Note, however, that the absence of this institution in these Law Codes could be due to the fact that they are not so well preserved as the Code of Hammurabi.
21. Code of Hammurabi, Epilogue, xxiv, 30 – 59 (transl. TH. J. MEEK).
Chapter 13
1. H. W. F. SAGGS, Everyday Life in Babylonia and Assyria, London, 1965; S. DALLEY Mari and Karana, Two Old Babylonian Cities, London, 1984, pp. 50 – 111.
2. On Shimshara: J. LASSØE, The Shemshara Tablets, a Preliminary Report, Copenhagen, 1959; People of Ancient Assyria, London, 1963. Tell al-Rimah lies 60 kilometres west of Mosul. British excavations from 1964 to 1971. Preliminary reports in Iraq, XVII (1965) to XXIV (1972). Summary by D. os in J. CURTIS (ed.), Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery, London, 1983, pp. 86 – 98. The identification of this mound as ancient Karana is debated. Archives published by S. DALLEY, C. B. F. WALKER and J. D. HAWKINS: The Old Babylonian Tablets from Tell al-Rimah, London, 1976.
3. Street chapels of PA.SAG, Ninshubur and unidentified minor gods at Ur: SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY, AJ, X (1930), pp. 368 – 72; Excavations at Ur, pp. 190 – 92; D. J. WISEMAN, ‘The goddess Lama at Ur’, Iraq, XXII (1960), pp. 166 – 71; SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY, SIR MAX MALLOWAN and T. C. MITCHELL (ed.), Ur Excavations: The Old Babylonian Period (UE VII), London, 1976.
4. Examples: temple of Hani and Nisaba at Tell Harmal, Sumer, II (1946), pp. 23 – 4; temple of Ishtar-Kititum at Ischâli, IOC, XX (1936), pp. 74 – 98.
5. The principal temples in that period are those of Ischâli, Assur, Tell Leilan, Tell al-Rimah and Larsa, and the temple of the goddess Ningal at Ur. General view in E. HEINRICH, Die Tempel und Heiligtümer im alten Mesopotamien, Berlin, 1982.
6. For details on temples and cults, apart from general books on Mesopotamian religion, see: Le Temple et le Culte, compte-rendu de la XXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, 1972.
7. R. S. ELLIS, Foundation Deposits in Ancient Mesopotamia, New Haven and London, 1967.
8. On the difficult subject of Mesopotamian music, as reconstructed from Hurrian tablets of ‘score’, see: D. WULSTAND, Music and Letters, LII (1971), pp. 365 – 82; A. KILMER, RA, LXVIII (1974), pp. 69 – 82; M. DUCHESNE-GUILLEMIN, ‘Déchiffrement de la musique babylonienne’, Academia dei Lincei, Roma, 1977, pp. 1–25.
9. The studies on Neo-Sumerian feasts published by H. SAUREN and H. LIMET in Actes de la 17ème Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Ham-sur-Heure, Belgium, 1970, pp. 11 – 29 and 59 – 74, would probably apply to the Old Babylonian period with minor changes.
10. F. THUREAU-DANGIN, Rituels Accadiens, Paris, 1907, p. 10 ff. (Cf. ANET, pp. 334 – 8.) This ritual dates, in fact, to the Hellenistic period, but it certainly reproduces a much older original.
11. The fundamental study on priests in the Old Babylonian period is that of J. RENGER, ‘Untersuchungen zum Priestertum der altbabylonischen Zeit’, ZA, XXIV (1967), pp. 110 – 98; XXV (1969), pp. 104 – 230.
12. See: R. HARRIS, article ‘Hierodulen’ in RLA, IV, pp. 151 – 5; J. BOTTERO, article Homosexualitat' in RLA, IV, pp. 459 – 68.
13. R. HARRIS, The naditu woman’. in Studies presented to A. L. Oppenheim, Chicago, 1964, pp. 106 – 35, and Ancient Sippar, Leiden, 1975, pp. 305 – 12.
14. The priests received part of the offerings and of the animals sacrificed in proportions fixed by royal decree. See, for instance, the stone-tablet of Nabû-apal-iddina, King of Babylon, in BBS, pp. 120 – 27.
15. A. PARROT, Mission Archéologique à Mari, III, Le Palais, 3 vol., Paris, 1958 – 9. J. MARGUERON, Recherches sur les Palais Mésopotamiens de l'Age du Bronze, Paris, 1982, pp. 209 – 380. Three other palaces are known for that period: Sin-kashid's palace at Uruk, the palace of the kings of Eshnunna at Tell Asmar and the palace at Tell al-Rimah. All three figures in Margueron, op. cit.
16. H. VINCENT, Revue Biblique (1939), p. 156.
17. G. DOSSIN, Syria, XVIII (1937), pp. 74 – 5.
18. A. PARROT, Le Palais, II; Sumer, fig. 254 – 9; B. PIERRE, ‘Décor peint à Mari et au Proche-Orient’, MARI, 3, Paris, 1984.
19. A. PARROT, Mari, une Ville Perdue, Paris, 1938, p. 161.
20. J. BOTTERO, article ‘Küche’ in RLA, VI, pp. 277 – 98. ‘La plus vieille cuisine du monde’, L'Histoire (Paris), XLIX (1982), pp. 72 – 82.
21. ARMT, I, 64; IV, 79.
22. Modern Tell Ashara, on the Euphrates, 72 kilometres north of Mari. American excavations are in progress. Preliminary reports in Syro-Mesopotamian Studies, Malibu, Calif.,
since 1977.
23. ARMT, III, 62.
24. G. DOSSIN, ‘Une révélation du dieu Dagan à Terqa’, RA, XLII (1948), pp. 125 – 34.
25. A town on the lower Khabur, probably Tell Fedain.
26. Examples taken from ARMT, II, 106; VI, 43; I, 89; II, 112 respectively.
27. This was the usual opening sentence for letters. The sender spoke to the scribe who was to read the letter to the addressee.
28. SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY, UE, VII, pp. 12 – 39; 95 – 165; Ur of the Chaldees, London, 1982, pp. 191 – 213.
29. C. J. GADD, ‘Two sketches from the life at Ur’, Iraq, XXV (1963), pp. 177 – 88.
30. For details, see: H. W. F. SAGGS, Everyday Life in Babylonia and Assyria; On house furniture and equipment: A. SALONEN, Die Möbel der alten Mesopotamien, Helsinki, 1963; Die Hausgeräte der alten Mesopotamien, Helsinki, 1965 – 6.